Method and apparatus for side registration of box blanks



p 1952 L. E. LA BOMBARD METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIDE REGISTRATION OF BOX BLANKS Filed May 27, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 A mm INVENTOR. L EON E. LAB 0M BARD 1- PM ATTORNEYS Se t. 11, 1962 E. LA BOMBARD 3,053,155

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIDE REGISTRATION OF BOX BLANKS Filed May 27, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 11, 1962 E. LA BOMBARD 3,053,155

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIDE REGISTRATION OF BOX BLANKS Filed May 27, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 9Q4'TINVENT0R. LEONE. LABOMBARD PM, vP-w-nm ATTORNEYS Sept. 11, 1962 E. LA BOMBARD 3,053,155

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIDE REGISTRATION OF BOX BLANKS Filed May 27, 1960 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 4 OF MACHINE 5 v 4 INVEN TOR. LEON E. LABOMBARD p *Pmm' ATTORNEYS 3,053,155 METHOD AND APPARATUS FQR SIDE REGISTRATEON F BOX BLANKS Leon E. La Bombard, Nashua, N.H., assignor to The International Paper Box Machine Company, Nashua, N.H., a corporation of New Hampshire Filed May 27, 196i), Ser. No. 32,454 Claims. (Cl. 358.3)

This invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for registering box blanks with the longitudinal creasers of a box forming machine.

The invention especially relates to box forming machines wherein the box blanks are of considerable area, made of heavy paperboard such as corrugated, and advanced at considerable speed horizontally along the longitudinal paper line of the machine. Such machines usually include a feeding zone, a creasing zone, a folding zone and a stacking zone and they may be forty to fifty feet in length and capable of folding corrugated box blanks up to eight to ten feet in lateral dimension and several feet in longitudinal dimension.

In my copending application for United States Letters Patent Serial No. 709,977, filed January 20, 1958, now Patent No. 2,949,066, entitled Method and Apparatus for Creasing Blanks, the creasing zone of such a machine is illustrated together with the drive means for the parallel, rotating creaser bars by which a longitudinal crease is applied between the first and third pairs of aligned longitudinal slits of the advancing box blanks. In that application the registration means is operable on the leading edge of each blank and it is mounted on the creaser bars, each blank engaging a barrier on the bars and slipping relative to the central frictional carrier belts while being registered and creased.

In this application I use the term slits to designate the narrow cuts or incisions made in the blanks for defining the flaps thereof, although such cuts or incisions are also called slots in the trade. Whether called slots or slits, these cuts are wide enough to actually remove some of the material of the blank when the blank is of relatively thick material such as corrugated board,

chipboard or the like. They are usually not dead end apertures in the manner of a slot, but instead have one end open at an edge of the blank in the manner of a slit.

In the feeding and advancing of flat box blanks, it is customary to properly orient a stack of blanks in a magazine and then to feed each endmost blank in the stack individually and successively through a blank passage onto a blank conveyor. If the upright guides of the magazine tightly fit the stack, the blanks, While properly oriented, may tend to bind. If the guides are quite loose there is no binding but the blanks may become slightly twisted and misaligned with the longitudinal centre line of the machine. Unless each blank is in exact lateral alignment when it leaves the stack, it will be advanced out of lateral alignment by the lug type carrier chains, or the carrier belts of the machine, through the creasing, folding and other zones of the machine. Side guides or other means for side registration used in the past also have a tendency to bind if too tight or to permit misalignment if too loose, especially when the blanks are advanced by the firm frictional grip of upper and lower carrier belts or the like.

It is thus essential that the longitudinal slits in each blank be in exact lateral alignment with the longitudinal creasers in the creasing zone just before the creases are applied in order to secure commercially acceptable folded cartons. In the case of blanks which may have been inaccurately slotted in a printer slotter so that the longi- 3,0 53,l5 5 Patented Sept. 11, 196.2

tudinal slits are not exactly parallel to the side edges of the blanks, it is especially necessary to so orient the blanks that the longitudinal creases are parallel to the centre pair of longitudinal slits.

I have discovered that more commercially acceptable boxes will result if the box blanks, whether the slits are aligned or misaligned, are so registered that the central longitudinal slits are parallel to the creaser bars. Inasmuch as the blanks are cumbersome, fiat and travelling at relatively high speed, it is a diflicult problem to register successive blanks by engaging the slits as they continue advancing toward the creaser bars.

The principal object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a method and apparatus for assuring that, regardless of how the slits are formed in the blanks, and regardless of any lateral misalignment of the blanks, the creaser bars will form crease lines in parallelism with a laterally aligned pair of slits without slowing down the advance of the blanks.

Another object of the invention is to provide side registration apparatus capable of sensing the path of a pair of laterally aligned slits in an advancing box blank and operable to twist or laterally displace each successive blank into registration of such slits with their respective creaser bars.

A further object of the invention is to provide a side registration member which is inflexible laterally, but rflexible in a plane normal to the advancing blanks, whereby individual elements of the member may freely drop into the central pair of longitudinal slits, force the walls thereof into registration and move out of the slit, while the blanks continue their advance and without marking or damaging the blanks.

Still another object of the invention is to provide registration means operable on box blanks being advanced by friction carrier belts wherein the blanks may be moved into registration by sidewise slippage between the belts against the yieldable frictional opposition of the belts whereby control is maintained and lug type carriers not required.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method of registration which includes the preliminary step of intentionally misaligning a plurality of blanks laterally with a longitudinal box treatment device, and then moving each blank individually and successively by a lateral force into exact lateral alignment with the device just before the treatment takes place.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the claims, the description of the drawings and from the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the feeding zone and the creasing zone of a known type of box forming machine with the side registration means of the invention applied thereto.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged side view of the creasing zone of the machine shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary, side View of the actuating means for the side register member of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan View of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an end view, in section on line 4t, of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view similar to FIG. 5, showing the preferred side registration mechanism of the invention.

FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 are diagrammatic end views showing the intentional, lateral onset of the blanks entering the creasing zone, the lateral movement of each blank into lateral registration of the longitudinal slits with the longitudinal creasers and the creasing taking place while the blank is accurately registered by its slits.

FIG. is a diagrammatic perspective view illustrating the operation of mechanism for effecting lateral movement of the side register means of the invention.

The box forming machine 23 selected for illustration of this invention is a type known in the trade as the LB machine made by The International Paper Box Machine Company, of Nashua, New Hampshire. This machine includes a box blank feeding zone 24, a longitudinal creasing zone 25, a panel folding zone 26 and a stacking zone not shown. The feeding mechanism, in the feeding zone 24, is described in detail in my patent US. 2,912,239 of Nov. 10, 1959, and the creasing mechanism, in the creasing zone 26, is described in detail in my co-pending patent applications Serial No. 709,977, filed January 20, 1958, now Patent 2,949,066, and Serial No. 741,513, filed June 12, 1958.

As fully described therein, and as illustrated herein, the machine 23 includes a central, longitudinal drive shaft 27, powered by a motor not shown, shaft 27 driving a gear reducer 28, the power train 29, the drive gear 31 and the intermeshed drive gear 32 for powering the blank feed rolls 33 and 34 and carrier belts 35 and 36. Drive shaft 27 also powers the pairs 37 and 38 of upper and lower, parallel, longitudinal creaser bars such as 41 and 42, located in creasing zone 25 and drives rotating feed mechanism not shown, located in feeding zone 24, as described in my said co-pending patent applications Whereby the feeding, carrying, creasing and other operations of machine 23 are all synchronized.

As shown in FIG. 1, the machine 23 is intended for use in the folding of relatively large, unwieldly box blanks 43, of corrugated board, chipboard and the like which may be five to ten feet in lateral dimension and several feet in longitudinal dimension. Each blank 43 is formed on a printer-slotter of well known type, as a preceding operation, and includes a first pair of laterally aligned slits 44, a second, or central, pair of laterally aligned slits 45 and a third pair of laterally aligned slits 46, each pair of slits such as 44 comprising a forward slit 47 separated by a longitudinal strip 48 from a rearward slit 49. The forward slits such as 47 divide the blank into four forward cover flaps 51, 52, 53 and 54, the rearward slits such as 49 divide the blank into four rearward cover flaps 55, 56, 57 and 58 and the longitudinal strips such as 48 divide the blank into four side panels such as 61, 62, 63 and 64 and a glue lap 65. The printer-slotter may, or may not, apply preliminary creases along the longitudinal strips 48 but, in any case, the machine 23 in creasing zone 26, applies a longitudinal, positively defined, pressurized crease along the longitudinal strips 48 between the laterally aligned slits of the first and third pairs of slits 44 and 46. The blanks are to be folded on these crease lines into tubular collapsed boxes in folding zone 26.

The feeding and magazine apparatus in the feeding zone 24, heretofore, has been provided with side guides 66 and 67, or the equivalent for laterally positioning the stack 68 of box blanks 43 with the second, or central, pair 45 of laterally aligned slits exactly on the longitudinal centre line of machine 23. The upper and lower carrier belts 35 and 36 have straddled the longitudinal centre line of the machine and the pairs 37 and 38 of parallel longitudinal creaser bars have been laterally aligned with the resulting path of the first and third pairs 44 and 46 of laterally aligned slits. Each successive bottommost b lank in stack 68 has. been fed individually through the blank passage formed by the gates 69 and 70, along the horizontal paper line P of machine 23, into the nip of feed rolls 33 and 34 and into creasing zone 25. It has then been frictionally carried between the upper and lower carrier belts 35 and 36 through zone 25, the rotating creaser bars 41 and 42 applying a pinch crease to the strips 48 while the blank is registered by its leading edge relative to the creaser bars and without halting the continuous advance of the blanks. As explained herein, the resulting creases will be exactly in registration, and lateral alignment, with the irst and third pairs of slits 44 and 46 provided the slits have been formed exactly normal to the leading edge of the blank by the printer-slotter, and provided the blank has been carried into the creasing zone in 5 correct lateral registration. If not, the creases will fail to join the forward and rearward slits 47 and 49 of each pair of slits and when the blank is folded it will have ears, bulges and be commercially unacceptable.

The method and apparatus of this invention includes the concept of laterally aligning the pairs of creaser bars 37 and 38 for applying a longitudinal crease along the strips 48 between the slits of the first and third pairs of slits 44 and 46 when the second pair of slits 45 is exactly aligned laterally with the longitudinal centre line of the machine and with the longitudinal centre line of the relatively wide lower carrier belt 35.

The upper carrier belt 36 extends along one side only of the longitudinal centre line of the machine and overlies only one half of the lower carrier belt 35, to provide space for the operation of side register means operable on the centre pair of longitudinal slits 45. The blank advancing means 71 in the feeding zone 24 is, however, intentionally misaligned laterally a predetermined distance such as one half inch relative to the longitudinal centre line of the machine, the carrier belts and the creaser bars. This is accomplished by deliberately moving the side guides 66 and 67 laterally the desired offset distance and fixing the same in place by the bolts 72, or by similar sidewise adjustment of the magazine and stack of other known types of machine. Each lowermost blank 43 in the stack 68 is thus fed from the feeding zone and carried into the creasing zone with all of its pairs of laterally aligned slits generally in parallelism with the longitudinal creasers 37 and 38 but laterally offset a predetermined distance therefrom toward the side of the machine 23 opposite to the side of the lower carrier belt 35 overlaid by the upper carrier belt 36. Each individual and successive blank 43 advanced through the creasing zone at a predetermined speed by the upper and lower carrier belts is controlled, by the friction of the belts only, so that sidewise slippage in a lateral direction is possible if sufiicient lateral force is exerted on the advancing blanks. In other types of machine wherein the blanks are advanced by lugs in engagement with the trailing edge, sidewise movement of the deliberately offset blanks would also be possible but without the yieldable opposition exerted by the friction of upper and lower belts and the usual pressure rolls indicated at 73.

The step of laterally moving each successive blank into lateral registration of its slits with the creaser bars is accomplished in this invention by the side registration means 74. This step is preferably performed by lateral pressure exerted simultaneously on the walls of the slits 47 and 49 of one of the pairs of slits 44, 45 or 46 and preferably on the second pair of slits 45 since a crease is not to be applied therealong in the creasing zone 25.

Side registration means 74 includes mechanism 75 for engaging the slit walls, spring loaded actuating means 76 for moving the mechanism laterally the predetermined distance of offset and cam controlled loading means for returning and loading the actuating means.

The side registration mechanism 75 is preferably an endless chain 80, trained over suitable sprockets 81 and 82, the chain being at least coextensive in longitudinal dimension with the creasing zone 25 and being laterally positioned above the paper line P. Chain 80 includes a lower stretch 83 extending longitudinally above that half of the lower carrier belt 35 not overlaid by the upper carrier belt 3-6 and the sprockets 81 and 82 are at a height above the paper line just sufiicient to clear the blanks advancing therebelow. The chain 80 is formed of individually flexible elements such as the individual links 84 and 85 flexibly and pivotably attached to each other, by pins 86, each link 84 constituting a central inwardly 7 projecting flat blade and each link 85 including an outwardly projecting lug 87. Each lug 87 includes an inclined outer side face 83 permitting the lug to be withdrawn laterally and outwardly from between the outer wall 90 and the inner wall 91 of a slit such as 47, a flat terminal face 92 for riding on the adjacent face of a blank 43 and an inner side face 93 inclined slightly from normal to the plane of the blanks 4-3 whereby the sharp terminal inner edge 94 will en age the lower portion of a wall 91 of a slit.

The lugs 87 of the links 35 in the slack lower stretch 83 will, therefore, rise and fall freely as each successive blank 43 passes thereunder and will normally ride on the upper face 89 of each advancing blank without marking the same because of the flat face 92 The lower stretch 83 of mechanism 75 is thus flexible in a plane normal to the plane of the blanks and if moved laterally will flex in and out of the laterally aligned slits of the blanks without barring the advance of the blanks.

Longitudinal guides 95 and of rigid material such as metal are provided on each opposite side of the bladetype links 84 and preferably on each opposite side of the alternate links 85 for rendering the lower stretch 83 inflexible laterally. The guides 95 and 96 are mounted on, or integral with, the bracket 97 and bracket 97 is slidable laterally on the fixed frame piece as of machine 23. Frame piece 98 extends the full length of Zone above the paper line P. At spaced distances longitudinally of bracket 97, pivoted links such as 99 are mounted, each operable by a bell crank lever 1%, the levers 168 being each pivoted as at 191 to frame piece 98 and simultaneously movable by the longitudinally extending push rod 162.

A suitable coil spring 193 connects push rod 102 to the frame piece 98 and the actuating means for mechanism 75 is, therefore, spring loaded into lateral registration position with the registration operation performed by the spring 193. Because of the longitudinal as well as lateral movement of rod 162, suitable universal joints 104 are provided therealong. The rod 192 is connected to the terminal end of one arm 105 of a bell crank lever 106 pivoted to the machine 23 at 1137 and having a roller cam follower 108 at the terminal end of its other arm 109. Cam follower 193 is actuated by the rotation of a cam 111, carried by shaft 112 and rotated by the gears 113 and 114 powered from the pulley shaft 115 of the upper carrier belt 36. The cam 111 is thus synchronized with the carrier belts and creaser bars to pull the rod 192 and the mechanism 75 into spring loaded but non operable position, hold the parts in non operable position and to release the mechanism 75 to move laterally under spring actuation just before each blank 43 arrives at the creaser bars, to register the blank slits laterally with the creaser bars. The lugs 87 move laterally across the upper face of the blank, to drop into the second pair of slits 45 and to push the wall of the slits laterally to the correct lateral alignment against the yieldable opposition of the frictional carriers, the latter preventing loss of control or over movement laterally of the advancing blanks. The lugs 87 remain in the slits during creasing, as shown in FIG. 9, and slide laterally out of the slits under control of the cam 111, as the creaser bars retract from creasing position. The cam controlled spring loading means of the invention is then ready to again release the spring 163 for side registration of the next successive blank.

It should be noted that in place of the chain 80, an endless belt, or a longitudinally extending plate having a plurality of spaced individual lugs movable vertically thereon or a plate having a continuous depending flange and made of flexible material might be used for engaging the walls of the slits as the blanks advance thereunder. These expedients have been tested, prior to the selection of the chain 89, as the preferred embodiment and have been found to either mark the blanks to be non-positive in action or to be otherwise unsatisfactory for high speed operation.

The advantage of an endless member such as the chain lies especially in the fact that the lower stretch 83 can be advanced at substantially the same speed as the blanks and thus eliminate all frictional markings on the blank. Preferably, therefore, a sprocket such as 81 is rotated on the shaft 121 journalled in the frame pieces 127 and 128, and driven by the gears 123, 113 and 114 connected to the pulley shaft of the upper carrier belt 36. The lower stretch 83 thus advances at substantially the same speed as the speed of the blanks 43 and the lugs 87 remain in the same relative longitudinal position in the slits rather than sliding or scraping therealong. An overrunning clutch 125 is mounted on shaft 123 to maintain the upper stretch 126 in taut condition at all times and thereby maintain the lower stretch 83 in slack condition at all times.

It should also be noted that the mechanism 75, when in spring loaded position, is laterally offset in the same lateral direction as the intentional lateral ofiset of the blanks, but in a greater amount, as shown in FIG. 7. The method and apparatus of the invention can be used to register blanks laterally just before a folding, gluing or printing operation, or just before an additional slotting or flap cutting operation, and the invention is not intended to be limited only to machines having parallel creaser bars in a creasing zone.

I claim 1. A method of accurately registering a plurality of box blanks with parallel, longitudinal creasers in the creasing zone of a box forming machine, said box blanks each having a plurality of pairs of laterally aligned slits defining a longitudinal strip therebetween to be creased by said creasers, said method comprising the steps of intentionally and identically misaligning said blanks laterally relative to said creasers until said pairs of slits are in parallelism with, but laterally offset a predetermined distance from, said parallel creasers; then individually and successively advancing each said offset blank longitudinally toward said creasers while positively moving each said offset blank, by engagement with the central longitudinal portion thereof only, laterally toward said creasers until the said pairs of slits, having longitudinal strips to be creased therebetween, are in exact lateral alignment with, and in accurate registration with, their respective longitudinal creasers and then applying said creasers to said strips, said lateral registration step and said creasing step both being performed in the creasing Zone of said box forming machine.

2. A method as specified in claim 1 wherein said step of moving said blanks laterally into lateral alignment with said creasers includes the step of engaging the longitudinally extending walls of a central pair of said longitudinal slits and moving each said blank by a force exerted only against said Walls of said slits.

3. A method as specified in claim 1 wherein said step of moving said blanks laterally into lateral alignment with said creasers includes the steps of exerting pressure only on the walls of a central pair of said slits for moving each blank laterally into lateral registration with said creasers and frictionally clamping the top and bottom faces of each said blank in said creasing zone for yieldably opposing such lateral pressure and preventing lateral over-movement of said blanks.

4. A method of accurately registering a plurality of box blanks with a pair of parallel, longitudinal creasers operable in the creasing Zone of a box forming machine, said blanks each having a first, a second and a third pair of laterally aligned slits, said first and third pair of slits defining a longitudinal strip therebetween to be creased by said creasers, said method comprising the steps of ad vancing said blanks individually and successively into said creasing Zone with said first and third pairs of slits intentionally, laterally offset a predetermined distance from 7 the longitudinal path of said creasers and out of lateral registration therewith; then, in said creasing zone and just in advance of said creasers, exerting a lateral force on the walls of said second pair of slits to move each sai blank substantially said predetermined distance until said first and third pairs of slits are in exact lateral alignment with, and in accurate registration with their respective creasers and then applying said creasers to the longitudinal strips between said first and third pairs of slits while each said blank is so registered.

5. A method as specified in claim 4 including the step of controlling each said blank in its passage through said creasing zone only by frictionally clamping the top and bottom faces thereof with suflicient pressure to yieldably oppose the said lateral force exerted on the walls of said second pair of slits thereby permitting said blank to move laterally While preventing over-movement thereof.

6. In a box forming machine of the type having a pair of longitudinal, parallel creaser bars rotatable toward and away from a longitudinal paper line in a creasing zone along said paper line, the combination of means for advancing a plurality of paper box blanks, individually and successively along said paper line into said creasing zone with the laterally aligned pairs of slits of each blank later ally misaligned a predetermined lateral distance relative to the said creaser bars; side registration means, mounted independently of said creaser bars, on said machine in said creasing zone, said means including laterally movable, slit engaging mechanism and actuating means operable to move said mechanism laterally for individually and successively moving each said blank laterally relative to said creaser bars, into exact lateral alignment and registration, of the pairs of aligned slits, and the strips therebetween to be creased, with their respective creaser bars and means, synchronized with said side advancing means and with said blank registration means, for rotating said creaser bars into creasing engagement with said strips while said slits are so registered with said creaser bars.

7. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said slit engaging mechanism includes an elongated member, substantially coextensive in length with said creaser bars, inflexible in the plane of said blank and flexible in a plane normal thereto, for flexing into an aligned pair of said slits to engage the walls thereof Without barring the advance of said blank.

8. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said mechanism includes a chain, having a relatively slack lower stretch adjacent said paper line for flexing into and out of said slits, an outwardly projecting lug, having inclined faces, on each alternate link for guiding the same into, and out of said slits and longitudinally extending guides of rigid material on each opposite side of said lower stretch for preventing flexing thereof in the plane of said blank.

9. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said blank advancing means comprises a relatively Wide, central, carrier belt and a relatively narrow upper, central, carrier belt frictionally engaging the top and bottom faces of each said blanks, said frictional carrier belts maintaining control of said blanks, permitting lateral movement of said blanks by said side registration means and yieldably opposing over-movement of said blanks in a lateral direction.

10. Side registration apparatus for registering advancing box blanks with the parallel, longitudinal, creaser bars of a box forming machine, said apparatus comprising laterally movable mechanism mounted on said machine, in advance of said creaser bars, said mechanism including a longitudinally extending member supported on the upper faces of said blanks but adapted to drop into, and engage the walls of, the centre pair of longitudinally aligned slits of each said blank, while said blank advances toward said creaser bars; spring loaded means operable to move said mechanism, while in engagement with said walls, laterally until the adjacent pairs of said slits are in exact longitudinal alignment with their respective creaser bars and cam controlled loading means automatically loading and releasing said actuating means in synchronism with said creaser bars to register said advancing blanks substantially simultaneously with the application of a crease thereto by said creaser bars.

ll. Side registration apparatus as specified in claim 10 wherein said longitudinally extending member includes a plurality of individual elements spaced therealong, each adapted to flex into and out of an aligned pair of said slits in a blank passing thereunder and longitudinally extending guides, of rigid material supporting said elements against individual movement in the plane of said blank.

12. Side registration apparatus as specified in claim 10 wherein said member comprises the lower stretch of an endless chain and rigid guides along said stretch permitting vertical, but not lateral, movement of the chain links in said stretch.

13. Side registration apparatus as specified in claim 10 plus power means advancing said lower stretch at substantially the same speed as said advancing box blanks, said means including an overrunning clutch maintaining the upper stretch of said chain taut and the lower stretch of said chain slack.

14. Side registration apparatus for accurately registering a plurality of box blanks, each of the type having pairs of laterally align-ed, longitudinal slits, as said blanks advance individually and successively through a blank treating machine, said apparatus comprising ofiset means, in advance of the treating elements of said machine, intentionally misaligning said blanks laterally an identical predetermined distance from said treating elements; elongated mechanism, mounted between said offset means and said treating elements and normally laterally ofiset a greater predetermined distance from said treating elements than said blanks, said mechanism being laterally movable to drop into, and engage the walls of, a pair of said slits in each said advancing blank and actuating means operable successively on each said advancing blank to move said mechanism laterally opposite to said direction of oifset and while engaging the slit walls of said blank until said blank is in exact lateral alignment with said treating elements and then to move said mechanism back to said normal, laterally offset, position.

15. A method of accurately registering a plurality of box blanks, of the type having pairs of laterally aligned, longitudinal slits, as the blanks are fed individually and successively past treating elements in a blank treating machine, said method comprising the steps of intentionally misaligning a stack of said blanks laterally, in one direction a predetermined distance relative to said treating elements prior to feeding and advancing said blanks and then individually and successively, just in advance of said treating elements, moving each said offset blank laterally and positively in the opposite direction a predetermined distance, by engagement of the walls of a pair of longitudinal slits thereof, until the said pair of slits are in exact lateral alignment with, and in accurate registration with, said blank treatment elements.

References fitted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,736,407 Labombarde Nov. 19, 1929 1,966,400 Tufts July 10, 1934 2,258,799 Payne Oct. 14, 1941 2,767,982 Noon Oct. 23, 1956 2,837,012 Burroughs June 3, 1958 

